S

tate-owned port operator PT Pelindo IV plans to launch construction of the much-anticipated Makassar New Port in South Sulawesi next year in a bid to meet the surge in container traffic in the eastern half of Indonesia in the future.

Pelindo IV operational director Herman Harianja said the firm was currently processing the construction permit for the Rp 7 trillion (US$637 million) port with the Transportation Ministry'€™s sea transportation directorate general.

'€œWe are processing the permit with the regulator and we expect them to issue the permit as soon as possible, as we have to keep up with the economic growth that is affecting the traffic. If everything runs smoothly, we can start the project in 2014,'€ Herman told The Jakarta Post.

He said the firm had also submitted the master plan and a detailed design of the port to the regulator and was awaited its approval.

'€œThis is our largest ever project. We want to make Makassar New Port a hub for eastern Indonesia, particularly in improving the distribution of goods in Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua, as the eastern [half of the country] is enjoying rapid development,'€ he said.

Herman said the project aimed to support the central government'€™s Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesia'€™s Economic Development (MP3EI), especially in developing the Sulawesi corridor.

According to the firm'€™s business plan, Pelindo IV will construct a port with capacity for between 250,000 and 300,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in the first phase to help support the existing Soekarno-Hatta Port in Makassar.

Herman said the container traffic at Soekarno-Hatta Port kept increasing every year, so it needed to anticipate the surging demand before it suffered congestion like the country'€™s main gateway, Tanjung Priok in Jakarta.

The firm has prepared a 106 hectare site for Makassar New Port'€™s container terminal and another 106 hectares for a multipurpose terminal.

It has also prepared an 11.92 hectare area for warehouse facilities and an industrial zone that will support logistics at the port, given that Makassar is the logistics hub for transshipment in the east, along with East Java'€™s Tanjung Perak Port.

In the first phase, the port will be built with a draft of 14 meters and a 320 meter dockyard in order to allow large vessels, such as the Panamax and Post-Panamax, to enter.

'€œWe are hoping [the first phase of] the port will begin operating by the end of 2016. We also plan to start a reclamation process and build road access to the new port next year,'€ he went on, adding that the reclamation and roads were expected to be completed by the end of 2015.

He added that the firm planned to collaborate with the private sector and other state-owned companies to develop the port, but it would also welcome foreign firms interested in contributing to the project.

Pelindo IV expects to start offering the project to strategic partners as soon as it obtains the construction license from the regulator.

Besides Soekarno-Hatta Port, the port operator manages 20 other ports in eastern Indonesia including in Ambon, Bitung, Jayapura, Parepare, Sorong, Ternate and Tolitoli.

It also manages new ports in Balikpapan and Tarakan, both in East Kalimantan, in collaboration with the local governments and shipping firm PT Samudera Indonesia.